Thomas E. Kurtz, co-creator of the BASIC programming language, passed away on November 12, 2024, at the age of 96. A mathematician and computer scientist, Kurtz, alongside John Kemeny, developed BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) in the 1960s at Dartmouth College. This language simplified programming, making it accessible to students and non-specialists at a time when computer use was limited to experts and specialized institutions.
Kurtz and Kemeny also pioneered the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS), an innovation that allowed multiple users to interact with a central computer. This breakthrough not only enabled BASIC’s widespread adoption but also laid the foundation for many subsequent developments in computing.
Born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1928, Kurtz earned a PhD in mathematics from Princeton University. Over his career, he held significant academic and leadership roles at Dartmouth and contributed to creating computing standards, including the ANSI standard for BASIC. His work profoundly influenced the democratization of computing and inspired generations of programmers.
Kurtz’s legacy lives on in the countless programmers introduced to coding through BASIC, a language that became foundational in the early personal computing era. He is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
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